2. Treat online-user reviews as near-gospel. The best way to make an informed purchase is by doing your homework, specifically using online consumer reviews of services, products, and even offline goods like realtors. The caveat: be sure the reviewed product has a comfortable level of nonoutlier ratings, like my statistics professor once told me. Otherwise you could still feel the sting (note: I prefer over 200 reviews, but will use fewer numbers as a guide if the reviews themselves are thorough).